Gerry Mulligan

I like what I hear other guys doing, but the thing that really attracts me is melodic playing.

Life on the road is murder. It’s as though life begins and ends with your horn in your mouth.

Eliminating the piano means that I’ve always worked closer with the bass than most players.

It’s true I’ve always been attracted to the jazz band in an orchestral way, rather than a band way.

Only the French, I guess, really use tenor and alto to any great extent in the orchestra.

In fact, I heard Bird first, and had got well into listening to him. You know, it’s the kind of accidental thing that awareness of a player is: what’s available, what somebody happens to play for you.

Everybody ought to have a lower East Side in their life.

Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.

I wanted to put jazz on the record, all the loves of music that I had on the record, so I could show people I was ahead of my 19 years. It may have been over the heads of some people.

I worked hard learning harmony and theory when I was growing up in Chicago in the 1920s.

It pulled me like a magnet, jazz did, because it was a way that I could express myself.

All of the technique doesn’t matter… only if the feeling is right.

Never lose the groove to find a note.

It takes an intelligent ear to listen to Jazz.

It’s very difficult for me to dislike an artist. No matter what he’s creating, the fact that he’s experiencing the joy of creation makes me feel like we’re in a brotherhood of some kind… we’re in it together.

I thought I had swell ideas and wonderful musicians but no one else did.

Records used to be documents, but now record companies want product.

I’m fortunate that I’m making a living at it now because I’m not equipped to do anything else.

I’ve been married twice. Most women would rather not be married to a traveling blues singer.

Improvisation is the most widespread of all musical activities. Why did so many people spend so long pretending it never happened?

A musician’s responsibility is to get as much of his art across to the public as possible.